The Lies We Tell
by AshleyNicole86
Summary: Stephanie is told that Ranger died but she doesn't believe it. How far will she go to find out the truth? *Complete*
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone! Enjoy the new story!!!

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**Stephanie POV**

I was hungry. Not that that was anything unusual. I, Stephanie Plum, was always hungry. The men here at Rangeman couldn't quite figure out what I did with all the food I ate. It used to be that I ate until I couldn't button my jeans. Now, with working for Rangeman almost full time and using the gym every morning, that wasn't a problem.

I was looking forward to surprising Ranger with my new lean and toned body when he came back from wherever the hell he was right now. It was the longest he'd been gone since I'd know him and I was getting anxious for him to get back. Joe had noticed my anxiety and he wasn't happy about it.

I sighed and stood up, "Anyone want anything to eat?" I hollered. There was a course of "Yeahs!" and I sighed again. Of course, Tank and Lester helped me write down everyone's orders and I popped my earphones back in. We got into the elevator and I turned to face Tank and Lester. I started dancing and shaking my ass to Hakuna Matata, which only I could hear and grinned at their laughter. I felt the elevator stop and the doors open. Their grins faded. I turned around and froze mid-bop.

There was one man in a military uniform and two men in civilian clothes standing in front of me. My heart stopped. I dropped my iPod and felt my earphones pull out of my ears. It hit the floor with a clatter that I couldn't hear over the rushing sound in my ears.

"Stephanie Plum, Pierre Couvillier?" The uniformed man said. Tank stepped next to me and grabbed my hand to pull me off the elevator. I felt Lester step right behind me.

"That's us," Tank said.

"Sir, Ma'am, we're very sorry to tell you that General Manoso went offline three days ago during a mission. We were not able to recover his body."

I tried to comprehend what they were saying. Something was wrong. Ranger was not dead, I would know if Ranger was dead. I felt Lester's hand wrap around mine. "That can't be right. Ranger is Delta Force. He's fucking Batman. Batman doesn't die." My voice wasn't panicked, it was strong and sure. Ranger was not dead.

"Stephanie? My name is Jake; I was on Ranger's team. I saw … He's gone sweetie. He talked about you all the time. He loves you very much."

"Why don't we all go up to my office and discuss this?" Tank asked. The men nodded and we got back onto the elevator.

I looked at Tank and shook my head, "No, no, no."

He wrapped an arm around me as I started shaking. "Call Morelli and get him here now," Tank muttered to Lester.

"Stephanie? Sweetie? Calm down and breathe." I was breathing. Wasn't I? My vision was going cloudy. Tank was right. I wasn't breathing.

Bobby was talking to me, "Just breath Stephanie."

I took a deep breath, "I'm fine." They had to know too right? Ranger couldn't be dead. I would know. Just like I knew when he was in a room with me, I would know if he was gone for good. "I don't believe it," I said. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy.

"Stephanie…"

"Don't you Stephanie me Tank! You know him. You know he's not dead." My voice was adamant. The men looked at each other and we walked into Tank's office and sat down.

I looked at Tank, "Where was he?"

"Steph you need to drop this." Tank said.

"Tell me." My voice left no room negotiation.

"I don't know Steph. You'd have to ask the General."

I looked at the General, "Well? He's Delta Force right?" I asked. "I mean he never wears a uniform and sometimes his hair is long and I know the kind of missions he does. So he's gotta be Delta Force."

"I can't really say," His face was kind but hard at the same time.

"If he was dead it wouldn't matter." I raised an eyebrow in defiance.

"Yes. He _was _Delta Force. He was flying a copter in North Korea. It went down. There was nothing left Stephanie. General Manoso is dead."

I stood up and set my hands on the table. I looked him in the eyes and there was no sadness, "I don't believe you." I slammed my hands down on the table and left the room. There were several men in the hall and I could tell they all believed it. No one believed me.

I rode the elevator down and got into Ranger's Porsche. I blew by a very surprised looking Joe and got on the freeway. I didn't have a specific point in mind; I just needed to drive and drive fast. I got out my cell phone and called Ranger's cell phone. It went straight to voicemail. "Let me know somehow. I love you." I hung up and called the one person I could think of who could help me find him.

"What's up hot stuff?"

"Diesel? I need your help."

**Ranger POV**

There was a path worn in the hotel room carpet from my pacing. I hated this. I'd been through two wars, hundreds of black ops missions, I'd been tortured, shot, and I'd technically been dead twice. None of those things compared to this. I was waiting to find out how my family had taken the news of my death.

My cell phone rang once and then went to voicemail. I waited for the beep and listened to the message. Stephanie. She may not be the most skilled bounty hunter ever, but her instincts were dead on. I could tell by the tone of her voice that she didn't believe it. I didn't know what else we could do to change her mind, we had to though. She would die if _they_ didn't believe that I was dead. They would torture everyone to find out where I was. So this was for the best. But it was fucking hard. Letting everyone else hurt so that I could live? It was worse than any other torture I've been through.

I smelled Christmas. Fuck me. Why? I got a headache and turned around. "Seriously?"

"Dude. They told her you're dead and she doesn't believe them. She's a fucking wreck. I just popped in on her and she was taking your Porsche on a serious workout. What's going on?"

"Bad stuff Diesel. I did a black ops mission. I killed someone pretty high up in the North Korean government. Someone saw me and put it all together. After about 20 failed attempts on me our government stepped in and let someone else go down. North Korea thinks it was me. If they find out it wasn't, they'll torture everyone until I come to them. There is coup in the works; once it goes down I'll be able to come home. Christ. Stephanie needs to act like I'm dead or they'll pick up on it." I was horrified. If something happened to her because of me…because of my job…

"So let me pop her in. No one will know. You can show her you're still alive and she can act like you're dead."

I sighed, "Stephanie can't act to save her life. She needs to believe I'm dead. You need to tell her. Convince her." I ran my hand through my hair and took off my dog tags. I grabbed a lighter and toasted them. They would polish up as good as new, but now they looked like they'd been on me when the helicopter exploded. I handed them to Diesel who shook his head.

"Ranger…this is gonna kill her…" He said.

"I know. Take care of her until I can come back."

"You sure you wanna do this?"

I nodded. It was the only way. Diesel popped and my headache disappeared. I sent up a silent prayer for Steph and went back to pacing.

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**Let me know what you think so far.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Happy Reading!

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**Stephanie's POV**

I was driving way too fast and I was surprised I hadn't been pulled over. It must've been left over Ranger karma. I felt the air pressure change and smelled Christmas cookies. "Hey Diesel."

"Steph can you pull over?" His voice was serious, my hands tightened on the steering wheel.

"No, where is he?" I asked. Why did I need to pull over? Diesel had to have found Ranger.

"Steph pull over." Diesel sighed, "Please Stephanie." I nodded and exited the highway and pulled into a parking lot. I turned to look at Diesel. "Steph…I'm so sorry." He pulled a set of dog tags out of his pocket and handed them to me. My world faded to shades of gray.

**Diesel's POV**

The look on her face as I handed her the dog tags would haunt me forever, even after this was over and they were back together. I realized now that she loved him. More than she could ever love the cop, more than she could ever love me. I watched the ever present sparkle leave her eyes as they filled with tears. Her body started shaking and she looked up at me, "No…no…he can't be…he isn't…please…" She pleaded with me, wanting something I couldn't give her. I couldn't give her Ranger. I couldn't give her hope. It was for her own good but it tore me up. To see this woman that I loved looking at me so hopelessly. Like her world had just exploded in a giant ball of fire as she watched.

"I'm so sorry Steph." I reached over and pulled her onto my lap and held her tight. Her tears soaked through my shirt. She was muttering incoherently.

"He didn't know I loved him." She finally choked out. Christ.

"Oh honey, he did, Ranger knew you loved him." She started sobbing harder. I held her for a few hours until her crying stopped, her breathing evened out and she fell into an exhausted sleep. God. I hated doing this to her.

I carefully got out of the car and leaned the passenger seat back and sat her in it, buckling her seatbelt before walking to the driver's side. I drove us back to Rangeman because I didn't know that she would want to be with Morelli. I used her remote to get us in and several of the guys met me as I stepped out. "I don't know what to do with her."

Tank stepped forward, "I'm sure she won't want to be here. We'll start by calling Morelli, he's frantic. The Porsche's tracker can go offline. I didn't realize she knew how to turn it off but…we'll we've all be looking for a while. Where was she?"

"Philly. She was driving like a bat out of hell. She had me scared."

Tank sighed, "Come on, well put her to bed and call Morelli. Ranger's apartment is the only unoccupied one…"

I nodded, I wasn't sure how she'd react to that. I lifted her and realized she was still clutching the dog tags.

"Fuck. You went there?" Tank asked.

"She asked me to." I answered and followed him to the elevator. She didn't wake up when I put her in the bed or took off her shoes. I watched her sleep as Tank called Morelli. I closed my eyes and concentrated, I could pick up bits and pieces of her dreams. They were about Ranger. I flipped off the light and closed the door. Tank was off the phone. "I'm sorry man…"

Tank nodded, "I understood the risks of his job…that this possibility existed. She didn't get it. I lost my best friend. Steph lost her best friend…her lover…Ranger was everything to her. Maybe she didn't know it, hell maybe he didn't know it, but the rest of us all saw it."

"Yeah…I think she'll be okay. It'll take time."

Tank nodded, "I'm going to go home. You're welcome to stay with her, Morelli told me to just let her sleep. I think he's a little confused by her reaction…"

"Yeah I bet. See you in the morning."

Tank left and I settled onto the couch. My cell phone dinged. I had a text from an unknown number.

**Is she okay?**

_**No, she is not okay. She had a complete breakdown. She's sleeping in your bed right now. **_

**There isn't a whole lot I can do about it Diesel. **No I guess there wasn't.

_**What if I popped the two of you off somewhere? **_

**What about my parents? My men? My daughter? **

Cripes. I hadn't even thought about her. Poor kid. _**Does Julie know yet?**_

**No. They told Rachael a few hours ago. She'll know in the morning. Take care of Steph. I've got to go. **

_**Hurry this shit up. I have a feeling things are gonna get a whole lot worse before they get better. **_

I fell asleep waiting for a response that never came. When I opened my eyes in the morning Stephanie was staring down at me. I jumped and yelped, "Jesus Steph. Don't do that." I sighed and rubbed a hand over my face, "You okay?"

"It's seven. I need to go to the gym. Will you come with me?"

"You could skip the gym," I said.

"No. I couldn't."

"Fine, I'll go with." I sat up and noticed that she was wearing the dog tags around her neck. She disappeared into the bedroom and I popped back to my house and changed and popped back before she reappeared.

She came back out and I followed her to the elevator and into the gym. It was empty. I watched her stretch and ran next to her on the treadmill. I was worried, I figured she'd still be a mess but she seemed to be ignoring what had happened.

She got off and went to the mats and waved me over. Great she wanted to spar. I finally saw where her emotions were going. She kicked and punched me until I knew I would be riddled with bruises. I made some half hearted attempts to block her but I knew she needed to get out her anger. Her punches became wilder and harder and I saw tears streaming down her face. I wrapped my arms around her as she broke down again.

"It hurts so bad, I can't stand it." She was clutching at herself like she was afraid she was going to shake apart.

"I know Steph, it will get better. I promise it will." I picked her up and carried her back to Ranger's. I turned on the bathtub and added lots of shower gel in lieu of bubbles and turned while she stripped and stepped in. The thing was enormous and when I turned back I couldn't see anything I shouldn't be looking at.

"Are you okay by yourself?" I asked. She nodded and I left the room. I grabbed her keys and went down to the fifth floor.

Tank came up to me, "Hey, how's Bomber?" He asked in a quiet voice.

I shook my head, "Not good."

"She beat the hell out of you in the gym."

"Yeah. Is there anything that needs to be done?" I asked. Tank shook his head no, "Alright, I'm gonna go check on her."

Upstairs I let myself into the bathroom. Steph was dunked under the water. I started counting so I could see how long she could hold her breathe. When I got to thirty I got worried. "Steph?" I said loudly. She didn't answer. Fuck. I ran over and reached in the tub and jerked her up by her shoulders.

Her eyes opened wide, "what?"

"You scared me."

"I'm fine. I'm going to finish my bath, take a sleeping pill and go back to sleep. I can do all of that on my own," she said sharply.

"Sorry. I'll be in the living room." I left and settled onto the couch. After an hour of flipping channels I went to check on her. She was sleeping and I walked into the bathroom and spotted a pill bottle. I picked it up. They were sleeping pills, they were Vicodin and the bottle was empty.

"Stephanie?" I ran to the bed and shook her. She didn't wake up. Shit. Fuck. What do I do? I pressed the intercom button. "I NEED BOBBY UP HERE NOW!" I grabbed Stephanie's hand, "Steph come on baby wake up!" I heard the door open and running. Bobby burst in followed by Tank.

"She's breathing. She took Ranger's Vicodin. However much was in the bottle." I said panicking.

Bobby took her pulse, "Tank, call 911, Diesel let me see that bottle." I grabbed the bottle and handed it over. Bobby sighed, "Ranger wouldn't have taken any but the prescription was only for five. She should be fine if we can get her stomach pumped fast enough.

"They're on the way," Tank said.

We all looked at Stephanie. It must've been an accident. She'd never do this on purpose. Right?

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**More Ranger next chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3

**I know, it's been forever! Hopefully things will pick up soon. Hope everyone likes this chapter. Happy Reading!

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"Am I in big trouble?" I asked before I opened my eyes.

"Huge. The biggest." Diesel's hand brushed the hair off my face and I opened my eyes. "Steph…" He stopped as if he didn't know what to say next.

I sighed and looked away, "I wasn't trying to kill myself," I whispered and looked back at him, trying not to meet his eyes. The lie hung in the air between us and he sighed. It wasn't really a lie…only a half lie. I hadn't been trying to kill myself; I just hadn't really cared what happened. I figured the pills would stop the pain one way or another.

"Steph you can't do something like that again." I gave a non-committal nod. "They want to keep you in the hospital on a psych hold for 72 hours," he told me quietly. I nodded again and looked around my hospital room. There wasn't much I could do about being on a psych hold. Maybe it would help.

It was strange, I could still feel that pull from Ranger. The one that I'd had for years now. I used to think that if I followed that pull I would find him. But that couldn't be right. He was dead and I still felt the pull. Maybe I was just crazy. I heard Diesel make a sound of discontent.

There was still a part of me, and I didn't know how large that part of me was yet, that believed Ranger was alive. That part of me wanted to follow that tug, that pull, and see where it led. At least I would know either way then. I pushed the thought to the back of my head. It wouldn't do to have Diesel listening into my crazy thoughts.

"It'll go fast. You'll just have to let them know that it was an accident and you'll get your **freedom**," Diesel said. I couldn't quite pin down the tone of his voice. It wasn't just disappointment in me, or fear for me, or even sadness for me, there was some anger in there. Diesel was mad at me.

"Right. Of course." My world was slowly unraveling around me and there was nothing I could do about it. If I took things how they seemed now than Ranger was dead and I was crazy. I looked around my room carefully. It was very sparse. My Rangeman insurance usually paid for better than this. It hit me suddenly. "Fuck, I'm in the crazy ward!"

"Suicide watch." Diesel looked even more pissed now. Shit I hadn't meant to make him mad.

Diesel's expression turned pained. "I'm not mad at you Stephanie. I'm just frustrated at the situation." He looked away from before speaking again. "The funeral is tomorrow. The doctor's don't think it's a good idea for you to go."

I took this to mean that I wouldn't be allowed to go. That was okay I guess. The part of me that thought Ranger was still alive scoffed at the idea of a funeral. The other part of me was trying to claw its way out and be outraged that we wouldn't be allowed to mourn properly. I stuffed that part back in as deep as it could go.

"Steph I'm going to go to the roof and make a phone call really quick okay?" Diesel asked. I nodded and he popped out of the room. I closed my eyes and concentrated on Ranger's pull.

Diesel's POV

The shit was starting to hit the fan and I for one was not happy with it. This was seriously fucked up. Ranger's way of protecting Steph had almost gotten her killed.

I locked onto Ranger's location and popped in. He was sitting on the couch of the hotel room with a laptop. He looked up at me and stood. "How's Stephanie?"

"How's Steph? Oh she's great. She's in the hospital. Took all the Vicodin in your medicine cabinet. She's on a 72 hour psych hold right now. Suicide watch." I was angry with Ranger and that anger was radiating from me now. I wanted him to hurt because of this.

His expression changed to one of such shock and hurt that it threw me for a second. "Is she okay?" He had trouble getting the words out.

I just nodded, "She'll be fine, no permanent damage."

He ran his hands through his hair and over his face. "I don't know what to do. I have government orders here Diesel. No one can know. I can't tell the **truth**." He looked away and then back, "Tank will put men on her to make sure it doesn't happen again. It won't be much longer. Steph is full of **courage**. She'll get through this."

"Alright. We have bigger problems though." Ranger raised an eyebrow and I continued, "She knows she can feel you and she thinks it's strange. She's blocking me out of her thoughts. It's only a matter of time before she realizes what she is. Especially with me hanging around."

Ranger sighed,"You're going to have to watch her like a hawk."

"I'm in the middle of a job, but I'll have the guys keep a close eye on her," I said. I had gone from being pissed at Ranger to feeling a little bad for him. This was obviously pretty hard on him. I gave him a half hearted smile and popped back into Stephanie's room.

"You lied," she accused with a raised eyebrow.

"Did not!"

"Did too. You went somewhere far away." It was my turn to raise an eyebrow at her.

Stephanie POV

My admission had obviously confused Diesel because one of his eyebrows went up and I knew it was in a 'how the fuck did she know that' not a 'what the fuck are you talking about' sort of way. I wasn't sure how I knew it except that I could usually sense when Diesel was near. It wasn't like it was with Ranger. More like how my mother and grandma Mazur knew when to wait for me on the front porch.

I'd been thinking about my confinement while Diesel was gone. It just wouldn't work. I couldn't stay cooped up in this room for 72 hours. Not when I could be out there, following this pull that could lead me to Ranger.

"How could I be so stupid? Ranger would be pissed. He'd kill me himself." I got really quiet and let tears come to my eyes. "I can't miss his funeral Diesel!" I said in a pleading voice. The only way I was going to get out of here was to play the perfect sorrowful patient.

Five hours later I was smiling to myself as I walked out of the hospital with Diesel and a troupe of Merry Men. I'd talked to the doctor, put on a spectacular show. They decided there was no danger of me trying to off myself and had let me out.

"I need to leave you with the men, I have a bad guy to catch," Diesel said. I nodded and Diesel spoke to Tank quietly before Diesel took off in my car.

I let Tank and Lester drive me to my apartment and walk me upstairs; when they tried to come in I stopped in the doorway.

"Something tells me that you've already taken the **liberty** of going through my apartment. I doubt I'll find so much as a Tylenol or toothpick. I'll be fine. Go home." I slammed the door in their faces and watched through the peephole as they conferred with each other and then trouped downstairs.

I made a show of going to the rest room and then turning off my lights and getting into bed. I waited an hour and got into some black clothes and opened my window and crawled out onto my fire escape.

"Go back inside Beautiful." Lester said. I made a show of groaning and crawling back up the ladder. I undressed and crawled into bed naked. An hour later I heard my locks tumble and felt someone in my doorway. I yawned and turned over, making sure whoever was in the doorway saw my boobs.

I heard a quite oath and then Tank left my apartment. No one else would be checking on me. The men still had loyalty to Ranger. I got up and dressed quickly. I left my apartment and walked across the hall with Mr. Wyzosky's spare key and let myself in. He was on vacation for a week. I shimmied down his fire escape as quietly as I could. No one was expecting me to sneak out this way and I made it to the alleyway with no problems.

It took me forty-five minutes to walk to Joe's and another five to climb the tree in his backyard and crawl in through his bathroom window. I knew that if anyone was watching Joe's they'd be watching the front.

Joe was deep asleep when I snuck into his room, I shook his shoulder and he woke with a start, "Jesus Cupcake. What the hell are you doing? I was in the middle of a really good **dream**."

"Shh. I need your help. I need you to get me out of here and then loan me your car."

Joe sat up. "Cupcake I love you but you're going to have to tell me more than that."

"I need to get away from Ranger's men Joe. They're driving me crazy. I need to grieve in peace."

"Stephanie come on! You want me to sneak you out so you can grieve for another man?"

"Joe. I love you. I always will. But it's been over between us for a long time. You know that as well as I do. I need to be by myself. I need to…Joe I'm sorry, I loved him." The hot tears came to my eyes easily and I let them flow down my cheeks.

Joe held me while I cried and finally kissed my hair. "Alright Cupcake. The car is in the garage. If I drive you out and to the police station they shouldn't follow, they'll think I'm working on a case. We'll put you in the trunk. You're luck is in today. I took my Ducati to work and went out afterwards with the guys. It's still there; I was too drunk to drive it home. Helmet's inside. If we put a flak vest and my leather jacket on, you'll look like a guy. If they see you leave the garage they won't know it's you." He sighed after he finished.

I nodded, his plan was solid. I grabbed my backpack from his closet and stuffed some things into it, including the contents of my purse. I added my spare stun gun and then Joe handed me his credit card.

"They'll trace yours." He got up and pulled on some jeans and a t-shirt just like he would if he got a middle of the night call from work. We walked down to the garage and I crawled into the cargo area of the SUV. It smelled like Bob. The engine came to life and before I knew it we were parked and Joe was opening the latch to let me out. He walked inside and returned with jacket, helmet and a vest. I put on everything and straddled the Ducati. "Good luck Cupcake."

I took off, keeping a close eye on my surroundings. No one was following me. I tuned into the pull that I was sure would lead me to Ranger and followed it as closely as I could, zigzagging my way across Jersey and into New York. It only took me a few hours to find the hotel. I knew. He was in there. I valeted my bike and walked into the lobby and to the elevators like I owned the place. I went floor by floor until I was on ten and then found the Ranger's room. It was still the middle of the night. I walked back down to the lobby and tried to look bashful.

Once I was at the front desk I looked at the lady sheepishly. "I went right up to my room without stopping to get the key my husband left for me, 1006? I swear it's been such a long day. I just want to go to sleep."

The lady smiled and looked around the front desk, "Sorry Ma'am, we just had our shift change, things are always getting misplaced." She ran a keycard through a machine and handed it over. "Have a good night."

"You too." That was way too easy. I went back up to the tenth floor and to the room I knew Ranger was in. I swiped the key and opened the door. Ranger was on the couch. He looked up and his eyes widened. I smiled at him, "Shouldn't I be the one who looks like they've seen a ghost?"

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**Alrighty, I sure think some reviews would boost my writing speed on this and the other stories. :) **


	4. Chapter 4

**Enjoy

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It was the first time I'd ever seen Ranger speechless, finally a single word, "How?"

"You have ESP, I have GPS." I said. Now that I knew for sure he was alive my joy was being replaced by anger. "You care to explain Ranger?" I shut the door behind me and crossed my arms.

Ranger was still silent. "I…Steph…" He crossed over to me and pulled me into his arms. He was murmuring in Spanish my ear and holding me tightly. "I'm so sorry. I didn't have a choice." He suddenly pulled away from me, "Did anyone follow you?" He asked urgently.

"No…I don't think so," I answered. "Ranger what is going on?" I asked. Ranger sat down but I stayed standing. I peppered his explanation with questions but he didn't seem to mind. He answered patiently and then kept explaining. It was a long complicated explanation and I tried my best to pay attention but I was exhausted. The whole situation was a little insane "So basically you did it to protect yourself and your family?" I asked.

"And you." Ranger said. The husky tone in his voice made my heart skip a beat. I gulped and saw his eyes dilate black. Oooh boy. I let my eyes wonder over his body and when I looked back up his eyes were back to normal. Well no, they were kind of…odd and he was staring over my shoulder. I whirled and found myself face to face with Diesel, who I noticed, didn't look at all surprised to see Ranger. Maybe I was delirious.

"Shit," Diesel said and shook his head at me. He looked at Ranger, "You're not going to try to kill me are you?" He asked. He really didn't seem all that worried.

"No. Steph, Diesel is going to take you back. You've gotta act like I'm dead," Ranger said. I snorted.

"Like hell. I'm not leaving you!" I crossed my arms and frowned at both men. I kept my eyes on Diesel, lest he decide to pop me somewhere. I took a step back towards Ranger and then another until I felt Ranger's body against my back. I turned, "please Ranger."

"Steph the only way you can stay with me is if you 'die' too. If you disappeared it would raise a lot of suspicion. You want to put your family through what you just went through?" He said and pulled me into a hug.

"How long?"

"It's looking like at least a few months…" Ranger said and gave me a half hearted smile. If he was trying to reassure me that everything was fine, the smile was not the way to do it. I tightened my arms around his waist.

"Let's do it." I said and gulped again. Maybe it was wrong but I didn't want to leave Ranger. Not for a few hours, and certainly not for a few months. His face went blank for a few seconds but he then he nodded once.

"Alright. Here's the plan." It was a good plan and I couldn't really find anything wrong with it so I nodded my consent and Ranger pulled me into a hard kiss. "Stay safe Babe."

I gave a reassuring smile and Diesel touched my arm and suddenly we were back in my apartment. It was just before six am and I knew we needed to act fast if we wanted to do this while it was still semi-dark. I didn't pack a bag, we didn't want anything to be missing. I did say goodbye to Rex, Diesel had volunteered to take care of him while I was gone. I was a little leery of that, considering Diesel dealt with as many crazies as I did, but he'd told me his apartment had never gotten hit so I agreed to let him be Rex's foster mommy.

This plan could really go one of two ways. It could work amazingly, leaving everyone morning my untimely death with sadness (hopefully sadness, probably some people will party like its 1999) and I would be free to live safely with Ranger until this whole mess was taken care of. Option two was that it wouldn't work and the bad guys would start killing people to find out where Ranger and I were. Option two wasn't very likely but we needed to pull this thing off without a hitch to make sure.

I nodded at Diesel and grabbed my keys and purse. I walked calmly out of my building and down the stairs. I stopped, took a breath and then flew out the door and to my car, Diesel bursting out moments after me, screaming. By this time Tank and Lester were standing with their guns drawn at a loss, they couldn't very well shoot me and I was almost to my car.

Diesel shouted behind me, "I got her!" as I slid into my car. Diesel did a Bo Duke hood-slide and jumped into the passenger side. I knew my part. I yelled about wanting space and waved my arms. And Diesel yelled about me being crazy and him coming with me. We were silent the rest of the way to the ocean. There would be surveillance in the car and this needed to sound real. We got to the point of no return and I revved the engine and gunned it as we approached the cliff. Diesel yelled at me to stop, I gave a teary apology. Fake sounds of struggle and then an earth shattering scream as we flew over the edge. Diesel had a firm grasp on my arm and popped us out of the car a millisecond before it hit the rocks and exploded into a million pieces, sending most of my car, and presumably our bodies, out to sea.

And just like that I changed the lives of everyone I knew.

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**Leave me some love for more. **

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